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Cameron Slater has developed a bit of a reputation for breaking significant stories over the last couple of years. That saw him win the Canon Media Award for Best Blog earlier in the year, to the chagrin of a number of mainstream media figures.
And he's broken another story this morning which, if it is true, casts Labour leader David Cunliffe in a very poor light.
It's Slater's scoop, so we're not going to steal any of his thunder here. We simply suggest that you go and read this story, and judge it for yourself. But it certainly casts Mr Cunliffe's apology for being a man in a very different and unflattering light.
We blogged on Wednesday about a rather unfortunate tweet from Tamati Coffey. The former TVNZ presenter and Labour candidate for Rotorua had made a rather unflattering reference to "Tory scum". Here's the tweet in question:It's just as well that we took a screenshot, because it seems to have disappeared from Mr Coffey's Twitter feed; Whaleoil reports:
What page doesn’t exist?
That was the Tamati Coffey tweet where he found it was lovely to talk about Tory scum.
We've got some advice for Tamati, if he'd like to listen to it. If you make a cock-up (which as a first-time candidate, you may well do) own up to it and apologise, then move on.
But pulling the offending tweet without any acknowledgment and pretending it didn't happen is NOT the way to go. People already have a low enough opinion of politicians, and even former television personalities who aspire to be politicians. They don't need any excuse to diss them, so don't give them ammunition.Social media can be a very useful tool for politicians or aspiring MP's to connect with their followers. But it can also turn to custard very quickly. Builders have an old saying; "Measure twice, cut once". We reckon the same logic should be applied by politicians to their social media engagement; type it out and read it, then read it again before hitting the "tweet" button. It might save some embarrassment later in the piece from future SMOG's (Social Media Own Goals).
A commenter at Whaleoil sums up Winston Peters' disgraceful smear from yesterday in a most erudite manner:
Geoff Vader is right on the mark. The mere fact that Peters could be required to withdraw and apologise for likening Brendan Horan to an alleged serial paedophile and escape without any further sanction suggests that the rules for MPs' conduct in Parliament need to be looked at.
Not everyone was happy to see Cameron Slater and Whaleoil win the Canon Media Award Best Blog gong last night. You can read a sampling of reaction here, but we urge caution. The Left prides itself on being caring and sensitive, but that trait was lacking last night.
Naturally enough, Whaleoil's arch-enemy, Martyn Bradbury was right to the forefront of the less-than-charitable stuff. Bradbury tweeted thus:
Had Bradbury left it there, it would have been enough. He would have made his point. But making your point is never enough for the bombastic Martyn Bradbury; he had to lay it on thick at The Daily Blog; check this out:
What do you reckon; is accusing someone of being a "hate speech merchant", then posting an image of their face photoshopped on the body of an insect ever so slightly hypocritical? We reckon that it is.
As an aside, Bradbury's condemnation of "the disgusting Len Brown story" made us laugh out loud. Within a couple of hours of Slater's scoop about the mayor's infidelity, Len Brown publicly admitted the affair. Brown's affair long preceded any political considerations, and the Lame Duck Mayor has only himself to blame for his predicament.
This is a healthy serving of sour grapes from Martyn Bradbury, with lashings of hypocrisy. It's not a pleasant recipe.
When you're a winner, a self-congratulatory tweet is eminently acceptable:
Congratulations to Cameron Slater and his Whaleoil team; Best Blog at the 2014 Canon Media Awards. Congratulations too to all the other winners and nominees.
The Whaleoil blog now has a daily cartoon from a pen-person who goes by the name of SonovaMin. And today's effort is an absolute ripper; here 'tis:
Few words are needed, except to commend SonovaMin on his/her sense of humour, and an ability, over time, to capture David Cunliffe's likeness better than most cartoonists. Please keep up the fine work!
Just so Merv doesn't have to point out the blindingly obvious, we've shamelessly stolen this image from Whaleoil. Just to make it even more blindingly obvious, we've left his little caption underneath.
But really; how could you resist?
And yes; the dog does look miserable. It must have heard the Roy Morgan poll result that came out on the eve of the Easter weekend!
